Work on FAL is moving along at a steady pace. Nearly all of the writing is finished for everything unlocked in the stretch goals during the KS. The only thing that has not been completed is the section on Magic Items and Weapons - which is about half complete as of now. Also, I have yet to complete the artwork for the magic section. My goal is to finish this up in the next couple of days and do some light testing on the weapons and items toward the end of the week. The section on Heroes and Villains is complete, including the backer made characters all of which are unique and totally awesome. In all there are 25 Heroes and Villains (I think). It grew into a pretty fat section as each character has text and an image. That's right, every character in the section has an image. The Pantheon of Ancient Gods has been written and all of the artwork is done. All of the major figures of the celestial hierarchy have images depicting them. There are ten major beings in the hierarchy. On top of that, there is a complete breakdown of the FAL universe, its creation, and the nine spheres of existence. All of the nine spheres are described. There is also a nifty little map which shows the nine spheres. The Maps of FAL are complete. These maps are hex maps and detail important and interesting regions on the continents of Radroz and Karkoz. The maps are all full color. A lot of stuff still needs to be proofread for small errors and I have been spending a good deal of time revisiting things and making sure the continuity of everything is on track. There is a lot to keep up with when you consider how so many of the stories and characters overlap one another in the different sections. I hesitatingly say that all of the artwork is complete (sometimes I feel like I need something else). Since the KS, I have done around 50 new pieces of art to be included. In other words, the Tales of Awesome is going to be fairly thick - actually thicker than I had intended. Some of this artwork will be included in the Core Rules (magic items and weapons) and in the Creatures Vol I (Dragons). So, even if you only backed FAL at low level, you will still get some of the rewards unlocked through the stretch goals. So that's where things are, now - and here's Ortan the Omnihare.

I thought I would post an update as to what I am working on and how things are going. I would really like to do this consistently here on the blog but it always seems like something else gets in the way. I mean, posting a worth while update takes a bit of time, proofreading, and organization, and sometimes I have spent all of those things for the day. But, I really hope to do better at it...

Alright, enough of the nonsense.Since the Kickstarter finished I have had very specific tasks to complete, mainly fulfilling the promises I made through the KS. These promises include the completion of the stretch goals that were reached during the KS.

While the KS was in action, as stretch goals were being met, I was hammering away at getting things together, outlining, fleshing out, and finishing stretch goals to stay on top of things as much as possible. I had no idea that all of the stretch goals would be reached and I am glad I was able to stay caught up, at least until the end.

Magic Items and WeaponsI'll talk about the last stretch goal first - Magic Items and Weapons. I have been researching folktales, mythology, comics, and other sources to come up with some fairly cool and worthwhile magic items and weapons. I have a list so far of about 25 or 30 and I plan to double that by the time I have finished. Right now only rudimentary description have been written out but I can say that the majority of the weapons and items will be fairly unique, I mean, I don't need to take up a bunch of page space with fire sword, ring of fireballs, staff of flames, wand of flaming, belt of fireballs, etc. So the magic items and weapons will be fairly unique and will try and serve several things. They will provided an item/weapon, they may be part of something historical (like so and sos awesome carpet of cloud surfing), they will also be something that will be fun to use (chaotic?) and provide the makings for the outline for an adventure. Now, they won't all accomplish all of these things, but I am keeping this in mind as I create them. Oh, and there are magic puppets that shoot lazars, fire, and yell loud enough to melt your skin off.

The Pantheon of Ancient GodsI have been steadily working on this section and it has grown considerably. I decided several things once I got into the heart of creating the Pantheon...1. There needed to be beings to make up the Pantheon (duh)2. These beings needed a creation story 3. FAL needed a creation story4. The universe around FAL needed to be outlined and created

So, what I am working on right now consists of hammering out the creation story of the entire universe of FAL, the creation of the gods and goddesses, the planes of existence, and the world of FAL. (I had some notes and ideas on this already but nothing set in stone or near being finished).

While I am not going to spend page upon page detailing everything within this story, I am touching on and defining all of the important parts and I think will really add to the feel of the FAL cosmos. Basically, I wanted to make FAL feel like it fit into a much larger picture, that it isn't just floating out in space, but it has a history and its surrounded by a living universe. I saw no way to create a working Pantheon without creating all of this as well.

Okay, so that is where I am in the creative process. All of this is being accompanied by new artwork of course (Orton the Omnihare is featured in full page awesome, dazzling, hallucinogenic, cosmic rabbit light!)

Well, the FAL Kickstarter was hugely successful. The funded goal of $1,500 was reached in about a day and over the course of the project, all of the stretch goals were unlocked which will increase the length of Tales of Awesome and Tome of Awesome significantly.

The Kickstarter was made possible by those who backed the project and who helped spread the message. It is because of you that the books will make their way into the world. It's also because of you that a bunch of extra cool stuff will be added. Thank you all very much!

So what's next?Well, I have a bunch of work to do as I ready the KS rewards and get the books together. A significant of fluff and setting material will be added. A lot of this is written or is in the process of being written but some of it is yet to really take shape. However, over the next month, I will be spending large amounts of time making it all happen on my end.

Besides the KS, FAL is going to be moving to an actual website instead of a subdomain. My goal is to get things looking good and to create an interesting online presence. The new site is also going to feature some cool stuff such as line drawings that can be colored, blank monster card templates so people can create their own monster cards, character sheets, and some other stuff as well.

Also, I have a three part video about the creation of FAL. This is the fictional creation of the world which will detail the hierarchy of Celestials, the gods of FAL, the immortals, the creation of the mortals and eventually the Boom War which serves to reshape FAL. These videos will be short (around 5 minutes) partially animated cartoons similar to the KS video. They will basically tell the story of FAL and contain a bunch of artwork, characters, and histories.

With all these upcoming plans it has to be said that my priorities are the Kickstarter rewards right now. I want the books to be really great and I want them in the hands of the people that backed this project as soon as possible. After that, other things will be happening. I will be updating the blog as to the progress of everything. I will also be posting new artwork samples and letting everone know what is going on with the project.